It ceases to amaze me how quickly everything you took as fact can change in a heartbeat. Not long ago Microsoft and Salesforce.com were sworn enemies. WOW, how quickly that changed. In the last few months, Salesforce.com and Microsoft have been marching in a sort of lock-step. Which is, to be honest, a really good things for business users?

So what is the latest amazing thing to develop out of this new found love affair? Can you say Business Intelligence or rather Microsoft's Power BI Tool. Microsoft made many announcements during its Convergence conference in Atlanta this morning. They included news that the preview of Power BI will be released for FREE.

So what is this Power BI Tool?

Power BI is a browser-based data visualization portal capable of connecting with corporate data using secured accounts, either on-premise or through select cloud-based vendors. It works with Microsoft's own Dynamics CRM as well as third-party vendors such as Workday, Google Analytics, Salesforce.

Wait what was that? Yes, you read that correctly. This new cloud-based OLAP Tool will automatically connect to your Salesforce.com data as quickly as you can enter your Salesforce credentials.

So don't delay get you own little OLAP Cube in the sky and start analysing you Salesforce.com Data today.

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance organizations and other professional services firms deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

Stitch the app from the former Salesforce.com executives that positioned itself as an electronic personal assistant for sales professionals is no more. Well I knew that on Friday when the email I had been dreading arrived in my mailbox.

I am going to miss the little chap.

The reason being Stitch was one of a handful of what I call 'facilitator' apps that had become part of my daily workflow. I found myself opening that little app before I went to bed at night and the first thing in the morning. It was just that good. It started out as a full attempt at an email client and then a while back they got rid of the email client part and just started doing what they did better than anyone else. Stitch helped me do the things I knew I should be doing but just never got time to do. The app made me look good. It reminded me to confirm appointments. It reminded me to follow up. It was the closest thing I had discovered to a true machine powered personal assistant and believe me I look and experiment with a lot of technologies that claims to do that.

The truth is that Stitch did what I wish so many CRM's would do better. It analyzed your data to suggest intelligent next actions. On top of that it was truly mobile. The UI was perfectly suited for the smartphone powered world we all live in today. It empowered its user to take advantage of what Forester calls mobile moments. It was incredible how efficient Stitch made its users because it's easy to use UI and its intelligence empowered you to be productive from anywhere. That anywhere could be in an elevator or your kitchen table or the TSA line at the airport. Stitch is the reason Salesforce.com bought RelateIQ because the vendors know that they need to very quickly transition from being static storage databases to facilitators of engagement. The days of data being backward looking are behind us. In this big data driven world we want our systems to tell us what we don't know not. To thrive going forward, systems must be intelligent and forward looking and not historical archives or systems of record. The systems need to engage with their user base to facilitate success.

So my little friend Stitch is gone but let's hope that it was out there long enough for the right people to have taken notice.

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance organizations and other professional services firms deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

﻿One of the things I love about the Salesforce Platform is that it never ceases to amaze me. Just when you think there is nothing new to discover this incredible platform humbles you yet again.

Take for instance a little setting in the Salesforce1 Settings called "Allow Salesforce1 to import Contacts from mobile device Contact lists".

When checked this setting allows you to add a contact from your smartphone address book directly to Salesforce. BOOM. Think about how useful that functionality is for your users and clients. After all we live on our phones. Our phones are our technology window on the world. Previous to this we would have had to have opened Outlook or used some third party tool to access this functionality. Now it is native. In addition I have a lot clients that don't want to turn on Contact Sync because the reality is that users address books are notoriously full of junk contacts. This native Salesforce functionality allows users to quickly and easily add new contacts to Salesforce one at a time without leaving the Salesforce1 app.

So how does it all work? There are two pieces to the puzzle.

Starting with version 7.0 of the Salesforce1 downloadable apps, users can import contacts from their mobile device contact lists directly into Salesforce.

> Users can go into Salesforce1 and navigate to the Contact Tab.> Select the New button> Select the "Import from Device" button> Your Contact list from the device opens and select a Contact> Matching fields from the device's contact list are mapped to matching Salesforce fields.> Finish creating the Contact like any other normal Contact

Fields that are mapped from your phone to the Salesforce record are:First and Last nameCompany PhoneMobile Phone Home PhoneEmail AddressBilling Address

Here is a link to the Salesforce KB.﻿https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewSolution?id=000211836&language=en_US

Have fun.About the Author

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance organizations and other professional services firms deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

If you think ab﻿out it the majority of our business communication takes place via email. We service customers by email. We prospect by email. So what makes a good email? Why does one email resonate and another fall flat? For a form of communication that is so integral to what we do as professionals you would think there would be hard data out there describing what works and what doesn't.

Over the weekend the CEO of Implisit sent me a link to their latest infographic published by Salesforce.com on their blog that does exactly this. Implisit dived into the data retrieved from over 250 thousand emails to discover the magic behind emails that sell.

So if you are interested in having more of your emails actually read check out the link below.

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance organizations and other professional services firms deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

Ever wondered how other Insurance Agencies are using Salesforce.com? Here is an opportunity to get in the same room with other top draw agencies and learn from the best.

Join both myself and Marshberry in Houston, TX on March, 11th when I will be facilitating a round table session of industry leading Insurance Agencies that use Salesforce.com to drive new business. I am presenting this one day event in partnership with the Marshberry organization. This is our second round table, having held the first in Dallas last year, and many of the attendees will be returning for a second time.

Objective: Much like last year each firm will have ½ hour to: Demonstrate a quick overview of how the firm uses the tool: For those that are comfortable, we will have a projector, laptop and internet hardline available. A few firms have volunteered to demonstrate at a high level how the technology is utilized by actually logging into the system remotely. Solicit feedback and responses from the group on specific items

Accommodations: We will have hotel rooms on hold at both the Royal Sonesta Houston ($189/night) or the Sheraton North Houston At George Bush Intercontinental ($149/night) and you can make reservations during the registration process.

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance Agencies and other professional services organizations deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

So Salesforce.com Spring'15 is finally with us. Have you taken a look at the release notes. Well you should since there is 'stuff' in there that is really going to affect how we all use Salesforce.com.

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance Firms and other professional services organizations deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

Sometimes you just find something and go 'now that is a great idea'. Thats how I felt when I saw a posting on the Google Chrome Salesforce1 Emulator App. What is it? Well it is basically a Google Chrome App that allows you to demo the Salesforce1 Mobile app right in your browser. No really its that cool.

So what can you do with it. Try everything. You can just imagine how awesome this is for training or demo'ing Salesforce1 to your team or clients.

Click on the device's home button to see options for resizing, minimizing, closing, and toggling whether it should always be on top. Click and drag anywhere other than the screen to move the window.Note: this is NOT an official Salesforce project. Salesforce is not responsible for this extension.So click here to get it now - Link to Chrome Store

About the Author

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance Agencies and other professional services organizations deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

According to most professional services firms I talk to, the biggest challenge with implementing Salesforce.com is getting people to use it. After all, a system like Salesforce.com becomes useful when it has data in it. The question is, how do you get data in it?

Now, when I ask salespeople about Salesforce.com, they say their biggest challenge is taking time away from building relationships to do data entry. They just want to sell.

Irreconcilable differences? Not anymore. Along comes Implisit, a piece of software that eliminates the need for data entry. The technology updates your CRM seamlessly and effortlessly, an example of how Big Data translates into a useable tool in your business.

Here’s how it works: As your salespeople go about their business – sending and receiving emails, and scheduling appointments – Implisit culls records from the signature of the contact’s email. It grabs their name, title, phone and fax numbers, email and mailing addresses, as well as the time and date. It also captures calendar events, building a repository of contact information that can be used to drive targeted marketing campaigns and forecast sales.

What about all the data that is currently locked in your salesperson’s inbox? Into Salesforce.com it goes, without a single keystroke of data entry.

The cool thing about Implisit is that it delivers for both the organization and the salesperson. Compatible with work laptops, iphones, tablets, home computers, both PC and Mac, it makes salespeople more efficient, while making the company more effective with Salesforce.com.

But here’s the best part. Salespeople don't have to change what they are doing. Every contact interaction is attached to the right records, in the right context, and they never have to think about it. They don’t even have to know they are doing it.

So go ahead. Set your sales team free to do what they do best. And set your business free to grow by harnessing the power of Big Data.

PS Advisory is a Value Added Reseller of Implisit. Contact us for a preferred rate.

About the AuthorAndrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance Agencies and other professional services organizations deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

As of the Salesforce Spring '15 release Salesforce.com will begin offering mapping capabilities that are native to the platform. ﻿

Here is a quick update on Salesforce.com plan to offer map-based features as part of the Spring '15 release.

With the Spring '15 release*, Salesforce.com are offering new mapping features:

Display of map images where any standard address field is sufficiently populated**. This functionality will be available through the desktop interface and the Salesforce1 Mobile app.

Standard Visualforce components for map creation.

Address suggestion and auto-completion available when editing address fields.

Salesforce.com has partnered with a third-party mapping provider to make these features work seamlessly within the application.

*Currently targeted for February 2015; date subject to change**To qualify for maps display, the Spring '15 feature requires that the address must meet the following criteria: (street AND city AND (state OR postal code OR country). Criteria is subject to change for future releases.

The maps display on standard address fields and address suggestions will be auto-enabled in production instances* as part of the Spring '15 release.

If you wish to disable this technology, please notify Salesforce by December 3rd, 2014. To submit an opt-outrequest, please complete the following steps**:

From your Salesforce org, click to access Help & Training

Click on Contact Support

Click on Open a Case

Select "Feature OptOut" from the 'I need assistance with' picklist

Select "Mapping Services OptOut" from the Product Topics picklist

Click Submit

*Sandbox instances will require the customer to opt-in to the map feature regardless of when they receive the Spring '15 release.**You will need to submit a request for each org that you wish to optout.

All in all, we are excited about this new functionality within Salesforce.com. What do you think?

﻿About the Author

Andrew Bartels is a partner at PS Advisory, a firm dedicated to helping Insurance Agencies and other professional services organizations deploy and customize Salesforce.com, implement best practices and generate an ROI. Andrew has been CTO for a Top 100 Independent Insurance Agency, and is recognized by Salesforce.com as one of the leading innovators of implementing Salesforce.com in the insurance vertical. Learn more at www.psadvisory.com

Over the past 18 months I have had the opportunity to work with a number of great insurance customers. In all cases we have helped the client not only configure and customize Salesforce but we have also designed and built a migration platform for their existing data.

Here is the thing though. Migrating your transactional data from your legacy system to Salesforce.com is only half the battle. In order to fully exploit the Salesforce platform one needs to understand what the Salesforce Platform really is. It is not just a CRM. It is not just a replacement for the legacy system that can now be accessed via the browser. So what is it then?

It is a system of potential action.

Oh I can just hear you now. Blah, blah, blah. Just another buzz word or phrase from the marketing lexicon. Now here is a shocker. You would be right. With out the data to enable users to make actionable next step decisions you are not full exploiting the potential of your investment.

So this is getting confusing. Lets take a step back and walk thru all of this.

What is a system of action and how does it differ from a legacy CRM?

If we look back to some of the first stand alone CRM’s. You know the ones. They were nothing more than an electronic rolodex. This was followed by the big client server solutions and more recently the cloud has exploded onto the scene with the likes of Salesforce.com and others. These systems all had a lot in common. Companies would use them to record activity. Now don’t get me wrong its good to have a place to record activity. There are huge advantages for both user and management but at the end of the day all this just helped you look backwards. The truth is that to move the ball down the field a system needs to look forward. Think proactive and predictive. To quote the great Wayne Gretzky.

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

In other words a CRM that provides proactive decision making information to the user is a system of action. Instead of providing the user a view of the past it takes that past and uses it to provide the user with insights into what to do next.

So that is all well and good but how does one build a system of action? How does one make the jump from being a store of legacy transactional data to a system that is proactive and predictive. Well here is the bad news there is no silver bullet. However there are certain things that you can and should do to begin the process.

Step 1 - Take time to smell the roses

When it comes to migrating your data to Salesforce.com most customers focus on the data that is interned in their existing legacy application. Now obviously making sure that this data moves across to the new system is critical. It falls into the ‘do not pass go’ before you have done this quadrant. However given the concept discussed above we should also use the opportunity to take a step back and smell the roses. By this I mean what other data should we be moving. Moving to a new system like Salesforce.com is an incredible opportunity to transform the system from a transactional system to a system of action. To do this we don’t need to just move transactional legacy data but rather we want to also populate Salesforce.com with ‘actionable data’ which when combined with the incredible human intellect of our users will drive informed next step actions.

Step 2 - Do not throw the baby out with the bath water

The truth is many organizations have already invested huge amounts of time and resources in creating systems that contain much of the actionable data you need to turn Salesforce.com into a system of action. How many organizations already have something like a data warehouse? Tons. How many organizations have some kind of reporting or modeling infrastructure in place? Think Cognos or Business Objects. I would say from my experience almost all. Now I am sure you are starting to see where I am going with this. Lets take the results of all this investment and in many cases years of work and make the results available in Salesforce.com. This after all is the magic of the platform. When you chose to invest in Salesforce.com you did not just sign up for a static application rather the platform allows you to customize the solution to fit the needs of your business. So why not take this actionable intelligence that is silo’ed in your reporting system and use it to empower your users to make actionable decisions. So when you are contemplating your migration take a step back and explore what else can your team do to better leverage the flexibility this opportunity presents.

Step 3 - Choose the right tools

Now all this is well and good but in order to make this happen you need two things. You need the right partners and the right tools. Despite what you may have read or been told moving data in and out of the cloud can be a complex business. Believe me I know. The good news is that it is all possible. The bad news is that many of the existing tools sets may not be up to the task. The majority of existing data migration tools were born before the advent of multi tenant environments. The were designed and built to move data around inside on premise data centers or between data nodes located at the very least on the same WAN’s. Unfortunately many of these tools won’t cut it when it comes to providing error free transparent data transfers between your on premise data nodes and the cloud. My choice of tool when it comes to migration and integration is Informatica Cloud. I won't delve into too much more detail here. Rather I will leave that for another post.

Step 4 - Choose the right partners

The bottom line is that it is absolutely critical to the successful outcome of your project that you choose the right tool set to ensure that you can move your data efficiently between your legacy system and the Salesforce.com cloud and that you can leverage this self same technology to empower your users by surfacing actionable data inside Salesforce.com.

To make all this work you need to ensure you choose the right partners. Not only does your migration partner need to understand Salesforce.com but in addition they need to understand how to design and configure the so called “migration environment” in such a way that it can facilitate not only the data migration but also the exposure of the actionable data to your users. This environment should not just be designed to facilitate your migration. Rather it should be built with an eye to it forming the basis of your integration platform. Oh yes and that partner should also understand insurance. Sorry I had to throw that in there.

So in summary remember that a migration project presents an opportunity to empower your users and affect bottom line performance. Just make sure you select the right tools and partners to get the job done because after all you are investing in a system of action rather than an expensive Rolodex.